Skeletal Madness
by The Threat
Summary: Boukenger . One hero in need will give rise another new hero.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "Boukenger" is owned by Toei Company

* * *

Somewhere in the woods, we found Kame no Shizuka, running away, holding something in her hands that looked like a head-statue of... someone of great importance, somehow.

Shizuka snickered, as she turned back to look at the road she just made for herself, which appeared to have started at some cave in the distance: "Better luck next time, Boukengers."

With this, she turned back to run further. Though, not two meters away from where she stood first, she tripped over something. When she tried to get up again, she saw that she tripped over a wire. Knowing that you can't just find such things in the woods like this, she looked to her left. There she saw the hook which kept held the wire, so that's not where it came from.

"Try that again, and there won't be a next time for you." a voice whispered from her right.

Shizuka turned her head to her right. She saw the figure a man, who appeared taller than any other man she had ever encountered. He wore a vest much like the Boukengers do, only this one was green, and this man's face was obscured by the shadow of the tree under which he stood.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Those you met in that cave sometimes call me 'The Creative Adventurer'." the man replied, "But you may call me..."

The man raised his left arm, where he had a bracelet, just like Boukensilver has. He pressed all the appropriate buttons, which changed him into a suit similar to the aforementioned, safe for the fact that what's silver on that other suit is green here, and what's black or white on the other suits is a shade grey here. Also, his helmet was made to resemble some kind of heavy vehicle.

"...Boukemerald." the man finished his sentence.

"Boukemerald, huh..." Shizuka did not appear impressed, "And you think you can take me?"

"The other ones did once." Boukemerald said, "So why wouldn't I?"

Immediately, Shizuka attacked him. Every attack she tried however, Boukemerald somehow dodged every one of them.

"Ooooo..." Shizuka was getting pissed at this. She decided to drop a smoke-bomb.

Boukemerald, however, caught her little bomb: "I'll take that."

He threw the bomb into her face, causing her to cry of agony. That's when the other four arrived.

"Nice work, Emerald." Masumi said, as he secured the statue, which Shizuka dropped, "Now we have secured the precious."

"He ruined my face!" Shizuka cried, "Now I'm scarred forever!"

"Let me look at that." Souta said.

Despite Shizuka's reluctance, Souta still managed to look at her face. Her face wasn't damaged at all, her helmet was however. The bomb must have hit her helmet, but Shizuka still got blinded by the smoke, which must have caused the pain she felt.

"That's alright." Souta assured her, "I would still date you."

"Date?" Boukemerald sounded surprised at the sound of that word, "I'm confused. Is she a foe or a friend?"

"You've damaged me, and all you can say is that?" Shizuka sounded displeased, "Oh, you..."

This time, when she dropped another smoke bomb, she managed to do exactly what she tried and disappeared.

"I told you it was a good idea for one of us to stay behind." Eiji said.

"And Emerald did a great job at it." Natsuki agreed.

"I only did what you guys would have done." Boukemerald reasoned.

"Still, for this being your first day as a Boukenger, you even impressed me." Masoumi said.

"Well..." Boukemerald started, as he deactivated his suit, "... I guess this means I can join you guys more for field work now."

Boukemerald, now in his civilian form, rearranged his glasses, which were about to fall off his nose. Those glasses made his eyes look slightly bigger. This way, if anyone saw him and didn't know he wasn't Asian, they'd know it now.

"I guess that ninja woman did not expect she'd be facing a European either." he added.

"Why is it that you strangers are so tall anyway?" Natsuki asked, "It scares even Natsuki."

"I don't know." he replied, "Why are you so small?"

"I guess your height must have scared Shizuka as well." Souta theorized, "This how she must have lost concentration. Or else you couldn't have dodged her attacks so easily."

"If it were that easy..." Masumi moaned, "... we wouldn't have this problem now."

He looked at his Accellular when he said this, as did the rest of the group do with their own henshin-devices. All of them were damaged, as if they too had exploded.

* * *

Note: Boukemerald is mine 


	2. Chapter 2

Back at SGS, Makino was doing the best he could to repair the damages done to the Boukengers' henshin devices.

"How exactly did this happen?" he asked them.

"Shizuka waited for us to come." Souta explained, "Perhaps she knew that if she had the Precious, we'd take it away anyhow."

"That's why she waited, and saw how she'd best destroy Natsuki-tachi's Accellulars." Natsukir replied.

"In truth, it happened too fast for any of us to know how it happened." Masumi finally said.

"Can they get fixed?" Eiji asked.

"Yes." Makino replied, "But other than these things, it's not the only thing I'm working on, so I'm afraid this'll take a while."

This came quite as a shock to the group, but Masumi was the only one to speak: "You must be joking!"

Makino shrugged: "Well, there's still Sakura and Satoru's..."

"Forget it!" Eiji interrupted, "I none of should use their Accellulars!"

"In that case..." Makino sighed, now referring to the new guy, "... for now, Verne is the only one who can henshin."

"That's a relief." Masumi sighed.

"Why?" Natsuki wondered, "Did you not say he did a good job back there?"

"He did then." Masumi replied, "But now that Dark shadow knows him, he may not be so lucky next time."

"Speaking of Verne..." Souta started, "... where is he?"

"Let's ask Mr. Voice." Masumi suggested.

When the four of them arrived at the main room, they were surprised to see a huge crate in the middle of the room.

"When did that get here?" Souta wondered.

"Must have arrived while we were away." Souta figured.

"This is not kanji." Natsuki said, after looking at both the sender's and the reciever's address, "It must be for Verne."

"But where is he?" Souta asked again.

Upon asking, everyone expected to hear Mr. Voice's voice from the screens, but nothing happened.

"He's never there when we need him, is he?" Eiji moaned.

"Let's go look for him." Masumi ordered everyone.

They didn't need to look very far, as Verne was outside the SGS museum, busy talking to someone, in his own language. Though nobody understood a word he was saying, it was apparent that whatever he was talking about, it was something that made him angry.

"Verne?" Masumi was the one who found him.

Verne turned to look at the one who called him, after which he said something else in his phone and hung up immediately after.

"Something wrong?" Verne asked.

"No, we just lost sight of you, that's all." Masumi replied, "Plus something arrived for you here."

Verne looked skeptical: "Really?"

"You ordered something?" Masumi asked.

"No." Verne answered, as he was about to enter the building again.

"Then it must be from SGS Europe." Masumi figured.

"Then I guess it's easier for them to send things to someone who speaks a language they're more familiar with." Verne said, flatly.

"Speaking of which, what language was that you spoke?" Masumi wondered.

"Never mind that." Verne replied.

"And where's your vest?" Masumi asked.

"You mean my SGS-vest?" Verne asked in reply, "It's right here."

He showed Masumi the inside of the vest he was wearing, and thereby showed him that he's wearing his SGS-vest inside-out, after which he explained: "Thought I'd stick out a little less in crowded areas if I wore the vest like this."

"I see." Masumi replied, flatly.


	3. Chapter 3

Back inside, where all the Boukengers gather, Verne too was surprised to find a grate of such size addressed to him.

"Hey, Verne!" Natsuki greeted, "Where were you?"

Instead of replying, Verne buried his face in his hands, while mumbling something in his own language.

"What did you just say?" Masumi wondered.

Souta, who was holding a piece of paper, said: "What is all this here? This letter is addressed to all of us, but it doesn't make any sense."

"And whatever's in this crate..." Eiji added, "It's not Precious. My Saga-Sniper's not picking anything up."

"Lemme see that." Verne said to Souta, as he took the piece of paper out of his hands.

"What's so difficult about that letter?" Masumi asked.

"I don't know." Souta replied, "It had all these strange figures, like there was something that looked like a 'c', but with a five underneath it. How is that supposed to be pronounced?"

"Even English is an easier language than that." Natsuki added.

They couldn't discuss any of this any further, as Verne shouted something else. Although nobody understood what it was he said exactly, he sounded very happy.

"What is it?" Masumi asked.

Verne did not reply, as he was still reading the letter. When he was finished, he went to pick up a crowbar, with which he opened the crate.

When everyone, each in their own way, asked what was going on, Verne decided to speak: "Everyone, meet..."

He lifted the crate's lid up and tossed it aside the crate itself, revealing an old skeleton inside it.

"... Prince Vlad the third, of Wallache." Verne finished.

"A prince?" Natsuki got curious, upon which Masumi's facial expressions indicated he wasn't very pleased with this.

"Don't expect much from him." Verne assured everyone, "Even if he were still alive, he's the type of guy you'd rather not be hanging out with."

"How so?" Souta asked.

"He may be a local hero in Romania." Mr. Voice suddenly decided to show himself on the screen, "But some of things he did when he was alive make people outside Romania doubt that."

"Mr. Voice, where have you been?" Masumi wondered.

"I do have other things to do!" Mr. Voice replied.

"I'm sure you do." Verne said under his breath.

"Now, don't use your sarcasm on me, Emerald-kun!" Mr. Voice sounded furious.

Verne sighed, but continued what he was trying to say: "Vlad over here, has been known to brutally slaughter his enemies, in ways I don't think you wanna hear me say out loud."

"Not the prince on the white horse you expected, Natsuki." Souta laughed.

Verne ignored that remark: "It's because of those acts, he received many nicknames. The Impaler, or Tepes as they say in Romania. Or because of his father, who was nicknamed the Dragon, he was sometimes nicknamed as Son of the Dragon, which translates into Romanian as... Dracula."

"Dracula?" the sound of that name surprised the whole gang.

Eiji was the first to talk: "Are you saying that this is..."

"NO!!" Verne shouted.

Eiji did not understand: "You don't even..."

"Know what you were gonna say?" Verne completed the sentence for him, "These days everyone associates the real person Vlad with the fictional character Dracula. Trust me, I knew exactly what you were gonna say."

"So this is not Dracula's body?" Souta wondered, "Then why is it here?"

"Emerald-kun knows who this is, now you all know it too, but the vampires in Europe... that's another story." Mr. Voice explained.

"Vampires?" this was something Natsuki didn't understand, "Didn't you just say that vampires aren't real?"

"He said that Dracula is not real." Masumi reminded her, "He never said anything about vampires."

"Exactly." Verne said, "But as was said, the vampires in Europe are dying to get their hands on this, hoping that they would resurrect the 'greatest vampire of all time. To archaeologists, this is a major find, which must be carefully preserved."

"Which is something that the vampires aren't making any easy." Mr. voice added.

"And now it's here because...?" Masumi still wondered.

"Because they wouldn't look for it here." Souta figured.

"Smart thinking." Verne complimented him.

"But what if the vampires come here?" Natuski wondered, "What if they somehow found out that the Prince is here? Wouldn't they come looking for him here?"

"I don't think that would be much of a problem." Masumi assured her, "With some crosses and holy water, that would..."

Verne coughed at Masumi's assurance: "I'm sorry, but I don't think holy marks of any kind would be of any help at all."

"What do you mean?" Masumi couldn't understand, "All the legends always say so."

"Also, we have nothing to fear from them at daytime, since the sunlight kills them." Souta added.

Verne sighed: "You guys know nothing about vampires, do you?"

Everyone looked up at this remark, one person at the time.

Verne, who was surprised to see this at first, explained: "The notion of daylight killing vampires was introduced in an expressionistic movie, it was never mentioned in old folklore. Also, the idea of crosses to help against vampires are based on Christian superstitions, and since by now we know that Christianity is a hoax, I doubt that vampires are sensitive to what the legends say."

"In other words..." Mr. Voice added, "... we have a lot more to fear from them then you'd think."

"All the more reason to hide this skeleton from them." Verne said.

"But it's harmless!?" Masumi reasoned.

"The sentimental value this has to archaeologists makes it a Precious." Verne finally said.

"He has a point there." Souta remarked.

"So Natsuki-tachi get to be a Prince's bodyguards!" Natsuki cheered.

Verne sighed: "Her cheerfulness keeps surprising me every day."

"As does your..." Mr. Voice started.

"I didn't ask you." Verne interrupted, indignant.

This didn't go unnoticed by the others, so Masumi asked: "What is it with you two?"

"Perhaps you still need to get used to the idea of talking to a computer-screen." Eiji reasoned.

Verne looked at Mr. Voice, then back to the rest: "Something like that."


	4. Chapter 4

That night, while all of Japan is asleep, there were some things, known especially to go bump in the night, who were roaming the streets. All of these creatures had pale-white faces and hands, red eyes, and wore tight suits which were either red or black. One non-expecting victim, a young girl in her late teens, got surrounded by a group of these things. She was about to scream out of the top of her lungs, but just when she did, something else showed itself. It appeared as a young man, around his early twenties. His face looked as though he should have died long ago, his clothes made him appear as though he was a priest of some kind, but without a cross anywhere on his body or the trademark collar one would think otherwise. A parent's warning of never talking to strangers would apply here, as this young man was not Asian. As he approached the girl, the latter wanted to scream for help, but there was some kind of force that kept her from doing so. The man approached her, rubbed her cheek once she was within range, snickered at the sight of her terrified eyes, after which he revealed his canine teeth, which he brought closer to her neck. The girl widened her eyes as she felt something sting in her neck, but she could not resist against it in any way.

The next morning, Mr. Voice had a message to all the Boukengers: "Anyone read this morning's papers?"

All of the Boukengers exchanged looks, which suggested they hadn't.

"Why? You won the lottery?" Souta asked.

"This is not the right time for jokes!" Mr. Voice exclaimed, after which he made the newspaper article he was referring to appear on one of his screens, "It says here that a girl was found dead in the streets."

"Isn't that something for the police to solve?" Masumi asked.

"It would be if the police knew what they're after." Mr. Voice replied, "She was found without one drop of blood in her veins."

Verne was the first to look up at the sound of this, to which Natsuki said: "What's wrong?"

"Does it sound familiar?" Eiji asked.

Souta, however had it figured out: "Of course! They must know the Prince is here!"

"Apparently, we weren't discrete enough to transport it here." Verne remarked, "Now the vampires know he's here."

"Well, what do you want SGS to do then?" Mr. Voice asked.

Verne appeared to hold something back at first, then he said: "What else do we know?"

"The police doesn't tell much to the press, so you'll have to ask them ourselves." Mr. Voice replied.

"What's to know?" Natsuki wondered, "Natsuki-tachi know it's a vampire who did it."

"Yes, but of what type?" Verne reasoned, "There are many legends that tell of vampires, not all tell the same."

"He's right." Souta said, "It's always better to know the enemy better."

"You wouldn't wanna prepare to fight something if you're not sure what you're up against." Eiji said.

"Plus, we don't even know for sure if this one vampire is acting by itself, or more." Masumi said.

"Why prepare to fight a bear, when you're facing a lion!?" Verne added.

"Why do you keep acting like Natsuki is so dumb?" Natsuki wasn't too pleased about this.

"There are more people who should stop pretending." Verne remarked under his breath.

It took a while for Mr. Voice to say something, but he spoke eventually: "Anyway, Yellow and Black! You go ask the police about the body. Silver, should that prove ineffective, you should go investigate the crime-scene! And Blue and Emerald, you better take the prince and leave before sunset!"

"No 'kun' today?" Verne said, with a smirk on his face, to which the other four dropped their heads, which appeared new for Verne to see.


	5. Chapter 5

As said, Masumi and Natsuki went to the police station, disguised as policemen, Eiji went to the crime-scene, see if there's something the police missed, and Souta and Verne tried to get the crate with the Prince shipped and ready to leave the country.

"So is this how it'll be?" Souta asked Verne at some point, "Every time there are vampires we'll just send the Prince away?"

"He'll have travelled a lot more in death than he did alive." Verne remarked.

"I'm sorry to say this..." Souta didn't do anything to hide his thoughts about this, "... but isn't this a little crazy?"

"How are we supposed to know crazy!?" Verne replied, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Is there something you're not telling us?" Souta asked, more than concerned.

"Not as far as it concerns some people." Verne replied, after which he returned to the crate, leaving Souta to guess what that was all about.

The crate in question was fastened inside a truck. Verne himself wasn't the one to do as such, so all he did was merely observe as the men were doing their work. Once they were done, Verne spoke.

"You finished? Good, you can get back to your own business."

With this, the men left. Verne was about to close the truck, until...

"Verne, watch out!" Souta shouted.

Verne only had one chance to see what it was that Souta warned him for. Once he saw it, he ducked, as a wolf had just jumped on him. When ducking down, he only narrowly dodged the wolf. The wolf in question landed back on his feet, turned around to look at Verne, trying to scare him by showing his large teeth. But the wolf wasn't the only problem, as both Verne and Souta were suddenly surrounded by a bunch of weird moving pale creatures. Souta appeared to fend them off pretty well, but then the wolf attacked Verne again. As fast as he could, he changed into Boukemerald and fought the wolf in this form. What neither one of the heroes realized however is that while they were busy fighting them, there was another group of these pale creatures, who entered the truck and seized the crate. Souta tried to stop them, as did Boukemerald, but the latter was too occupied with the wolf so he couldn't help, and Souta couldn't do much against the pale creatures, as there were too many of them to handle by himself, and without his own suit. Once the crate was out of sight, the wolf left Boukemerald alone and ran with them. Both Souta and Boukemerald tried to follow them, but they were already gone.

"See what I mean?!" Souta shouted, "Now they're gone!"

"Yes, they are." Boukemerald sighed.

"You're not worried at all?" Souta could not understand, "I thought that the Prince had to be..."

"I know what it is that I said, as do I know what my orders were." Boukemerald interrupted, as he changed back into Verne, and put his glasses right again, "And it's time for someone else to know something as well."

Meanwhile, the crate has been transported into an old, abandonned and dark building. The pale creatures left the crate in front of a coffin. This coffin opened itself, out of which the young man in priest's clothes emerged. The pale creatures opened the crate for him to see what's inside. The young man smirked.

"Well done, Polongs." the young man said, in an Eastern European language, after which he turned to look at the wolf, "You did well, Vukodlak. You too shall share the power that was Dracula's."

After that, he laughed out loud, evilly, upon which he laid down in his coffin again, which closed after him.


	6. Chapter 6

"The easiest assignment that I could give you and you screw it up! What were you doing back there?!" Mr. Voice was not pleased with what happened back at the bay.

"Easy to say behind a screen." Verne but back.

Trying to ignore that remark, Souta said: "But why not let them take the Prince? This way the vampires will see for themselves that it's harmless."

"That's exactly what I hoped, but..." Verne explained.

This came as a surprise to both Souta and Mr. Voice, especially, the latter of which then saying: "What? You let them take it on purpose?"

"That was the plan at first, but then there was a change of plan." Verne replied.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Voice asked.

That was when Makino entered the room. Referring to a device he held, he said: "Verne. They're moving."

Verne whispered something, obviously, displeasing in his own language, but turned to talk to Makino: "Is that the receiver?"

"Yes." Makino replied, "Also, I managed to fix the many parts from your henshin devices."

"You did?" Masumi asked.

"This means Natsuki-tachi can henshin again?" Natsuki wondered.

"No." Makino sighed, "You can only make calls, and even call for your mechas, but that's it."

"It'll have to do." Verne said, "Let's go and get them!"

"When are you gonna explain what you're up to?" Mr. Voice asked, indignant.

"And when can we talk about what we discovered?" Eiji whined.

"It'll have to be done on the way there." Verne suggested, "The sun will be down within the next thirty minutes, so..."

"I thought the sun doesn't harm vampires?" this bit, Souta did not understand.

"No, but if we're dealing with what I think we're dealing with, we can't move too soon." Verne replied, as he left the room.

Still puzzled, the rest of the team didn't know what else to do, but to follow him.

On their way to... wherever the location may be, the Boukengers were discussing the situation.

"Anything you found out at the crime-scene, Silver?" Verne asked.

"It was odd." Eiji replied, "There were many traces that showed that the victim was attacked by a group, but there weren't enough footprints to show how many."

"Makes sense." Verne replied, "Vampires are known to walk the Earth as if hovering over it rather than actually touching the ground. Otherwise, it's possible that they moved too fast for their feet to touch the ground."

"That doesn't sound too good." Eiji sounded almost frightened.

"But the victim in question was a lot weirder, even considering the whole thing with vampires." Masumi started, "The body as bitten in the neck, there where it should have gushed out, but no blood was found at the scene."

"Natsuki hates having to hear this again." Natsuki moaned.

"Obviously, the vampire drank the blood." Souta replied.

"That may be so." Masumi replied, "But that too would have left a mark. The bite looked like someone just bit the victim, but didn't suck out the blood."

This indeed sounded weird, but not to Verne: "I was afraid of that."

"Are you planning on telling us anything yet?" Souta was getting agitated.

Verne looked at his receiving device, which was still bleeping, then decided in which direction to continue, before he replied: "Like Souta tried to tell me, it's crazy to keep transporting the Prince every time that the vampires find out where to find him."

"So you decided to let them get the body so they'd see for themselves how worthless it is. Then you let Makino-san put a transmitter on the crate so we'd know where to find him." Souta had figured this much out, "I think that was pretty obvious, but what are you so worried about? The skeleton is harmless."

"It is." Verne replied, not taking his eyes of the receiver, "But then I saw those Polongs."

"Polongs?" none of the other Boukengers had heard of that before.

"It's a type of vampire which you can make yourselves." Verne replied, "All you need is the blood of someone who's recently murdered, then put the blood inside a bottle, cast a spell upon it, and after a few days you have yourself a vampire that will do your bidding."

"That's what those things were we saw at the bay?" Souta asked.

"Must be." Verne replied, "Although I think that our enemy has used something bigger than a bottle, to make them this big."

"How do you stop those?" Masumi asked.

"The easiest way would be to kill the one who made them." Verne replied, "But that's not what worries me."

"Then what is it?" Masumi was still puzzled, as was everyone else.

"If our enemy knows how to create a Polong..." Verne explained, "... who knows what he can do with the dead body of an extremely devoted Christian."

"What do you mean?" Eiji asked.

"Why do you think that Vlad is considered a national hero in Romania? Or even called 'The Impalor'?" Verne questioned.

Judging from their silence, Verne knew that none of the others had ever thought about this: "All the people he impaled were those he considered as enemies, whether they be thieves, Turks, with whom they were at war at the time, or even atheists."

"And in this world, where not so many believe in Christianity anymore..." Eiji realized.

"Or where it's been proven to be a hoax..." Souta added.

"Does our enemy know what he's doing if he'd revive the Prince?" Masumi asked.

"I don't know." Verne answered, "That's what worries me even more."

Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks, to which Souta asked: "What's wrong?"

"It stopped moving." Verne replied.

"Everyone look!" Natsuki pointed towards the sun, which had nearly set, causing the skies to look red.

Verne mumbled something frightened in his own language, but Masumi decided to take the lead: "Then we have no time to waste. Let's go!"

Shortly after they had continued their path, Souta asked Verne: "You're not afraid of that wolf, are you?"

"As long as it is only a wolf, no." Verne replied.

This, Souta did not understand: "What do you mean?"

"Hopefully, you won't have to see that for yourself." Verne answered.


	7. Chapter 7

The Boukengers walked further, until they reached an emty place in the mountains.

"Where to now?" Masumi asked.

"Er... this is the place." Verne replied, knowing that this didn't make much sense himself.

"It's empty!?" Souta said.

"Be that as it may..." Verne insisted, "... this here indicates this is the spot."

Somewhat annoyed Eiji turned away from them. That's when he stepped on something that felt weird to him. He looked down to see what he stepped on, the picked it up. It was a little weird shaped device which had a red lamp that kept blinking.

"Is this the transmitter?" Eiji asked.

Verne looked at what what Eiji held, after which he swore: "They were on to us!"

That was when the pale creatures they had encountered before appeared from around them. Each one was babbling something inexplicable, not that it mattered to the Boukengers if these things said anything. Among them was also the wolf that was encountered before.

"Verne?" Masumi started, "How strong are these Polongs?"

"How should I know?" Verne replied.

"Everybody, look!" Natsuki exclaimed.

As she told them, everybody looked to see what Natsuki was pointing at. The sun had already disappeared behind the horizon, allowing the moon alone to shed it's light upon the planet. Once that was seen, the wolf started to act quite strangely, as though it was either retracting some of his limbs to make room for others, or was somehow becoming bigger. It took a while before everyone realized it was changing form.

"Is..." Souta didn't know how to best put this into words, "... Is that what you were afraid of?"

Verne hesitated, but replied none the less: "Yes... a wolf by day, a vampire at night."

Suddenly the wolf had taken the shape of a man, who was somewhere around his forties, and wore wolf-skinned clothes.

"Vukodlak..." Verne whispered.

The wolf-man, or wolf-vampire, smirked at the sound of that word, at which point he too said something in his own language, to which Verne replied.

"He doesn't sound too enthusiast about meeting someone who knows his language." Souta remarked.

"That's not his language." Masumi corrected him, "It doesn't at all sound like what I heard him speak before."

"Now..." the Vukodlak said in Japanese, "... isn't that a little rude of you to speak in a language they don't know?"

"You started it!" Verne bit back.

To this, Vukodlak could not say anything, so he changed the subject: "It's too late for you to do anything anyway."

"We'll just see about that!" Masumi said, as he was about to use his Accelular.

"Masumi-chan, no!" Natsuki stopped him, "Henshin is not possible yet!"

Vukodlak could not understand: "Henshin?"

"That would be this!" Verne shouted, as he changed into Boukemerald.

"That's it?" Vukodlak was unimpressed, "Schreck taught me to do better than that."

"Schreck?" Boukemerald sounded surprised, "He's still alive?"

"Who's Schreck?" Souta asked.

Before anyone could answer, Vukodlak changed too. He kept his wolf-skinned clothes, only his head and hands changed visibly, as it took a more wolf-like shape. Upon changing, he gave the order to his foot-soldiers: "Polongs, attack!"

Since there was only one among them who could transform, the other four were more easy targets to the Polongs. Boukemerald wanted to help them, but then he remembered himself of something else, as he murmured in his own language: "Why did Makino not equip me with weapons yet?"

That's when he decided to use the following tactic: "Everyone! Drive them together!"

Everybody did as they were told and drove the Polongs together. Meanwhile, Boukemerald called upon the team's Accel-Tecter. But shortly after doing so, Vukodlak jumped at Boukemerald, causing the Tecter to fly off into the air.

Masumi could only just catch it, after which he leaned himself against a nearby tree, shouting at everyone: "Get down!"

Once everyone was down, Masumi fired the Tecter. Not only did it cause him to fly away, through the tree even, but at least the Polongs were beaten.

"Masumi-chan!" Natsuki shouted worriedly.

This infuriated Vukodlak: "What did you just do?!"

Boukemerald, who was trying to get back on his feet, as he was forced to fight this enemy alone, laughed as he remarked: "I guess that humans have evolved to be a much stronger enemy now."

Hearing this, Vukodlak only grew more angry, which caused him to change into a giant.

Boukemerald had joined the others, who were taking care of Masumi: "Is he all right?"

"He will be." Eiji replied, "But we have more pressing matters now."

"How do we fight that now?" Boukemerald wondered.

"Makino!" Souta called through his Accellular, "Can we still control DaiBouken?"

Makino sighed through the phone: "It's hard, with one of you wounded and another who isn't a Precious yet."

"But it's possible?"

"Another who... what?" Boukemerald had trouble understanding Makino's remark.

"Yes, but it won't be easy." Makino replied.

"Natsuki is not going to leave Masumi-chan." Natsuki said.

"Then it's just the three of us." Eiji decided.

"No matter." Souta said, "Gou Gou Vehicles, launch!"

The five vehicles needed to form DaiBouken arrived and combined. First thing the three Boukengers did, was to call upon the giant robot's spade and shovel, but these weapons weren't strong enough to fight off Vukodlak, nor did he give them any time to let the two weapons form one sword. In a desperate attempt to fend off another one of his attacks, DaiBouken held the two weapons in front of him. For some reason, that stopped Vukodlak from doing anything. In fact, it somehow got him to back off.

"What's he doing?" Souta wondered.

When Boukemerald looked at the way that the shovel and spade were held, he noticed how they formed something that looked like a cross: "He must be afraid of the cross we just formed."

"But I thought Christianity was a hoax?" Souta remembered.

"Maybe that Vukadlak doesn't know that." Eiji figured.

"Works enough for me." Boukemerald decided.

DaiBouken formed the one sword, and used his deadly attack to kill Vukodlak. One explosion, turning the vampire into dust, was the effect, and Vukodlak was gone.


	8. Chapter 8

While this was going on, the other vampire, the one dressed as a priest, was witnessing the titanic battle from afar. Upon the destruction of Vukodlak, he said: "Poor man. Held on too much to his own superstitions."

At that moment, the Polongs had returned to the hide-out. The first thing they did upon arrival, was to bring Vlad's body into a bath-tub, after which they left it alone with their master. The latter looked upon the body, as a smile krept upon his face.

"You, who once sided with the pope himself..." he raised his voice with every word he spoke, "... you shall bring the people to believe again."

Back at SGS's HQ, Masumi had been brought into the infirmary, while Natsuki couldn't bring herself to leave his side.

Meanwhile, Mr. Voice had his own things to say to the rest of the team: "Well, it's a good thing you at least got rid of that one vampire. Still..."

"What's so special about Shrek anyway?" Souta asked Verne, "How could Dracula not be real, but some cartoon character can be?"

Verne sighed: "I wasn't talking about a cartoon character. I was talking about a man named Schrek."

"And that man would be...?" Eiji asked.

"Remember what I said earlier?" Verne replied with a question, "About the notion of a vampire dying by sunlight being introduced in a expressionistic movie?"

Both of the other guys nodded, after which Verne continued: "The man who played the vampire in that movie was called Schrek."

"But Expressionism is from the early twentieth century." Souta reminded him, "He can't be alive today. Can he?"

"Rumour had it that Schrek was an actual vampire." Verne replied, "Upon confirmation that those rumours were true, people have tried to hunt him down and kill him."

"Which obviously didn't work." Mr. Voice interrupted.

Somewhat indignant on the interruption, Verne replied: "I wasn't with SGS at the time, therefor I wasn't there when it happened. It's possible that whoever tried to kill him thought they succeeded, but..."

"Schrek has somehow survived." Eiji completed for him, "But why would he participate in a movie that gived people the wrong image of vampires?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Souta had it figured out, "Everyone who saw the movie, began to use that same idea for their own stories. I dare you to name one movie, or even book which got released that doesn't let vampires die by sunlight."

"Those that got released after the release of that one movie, that is." Verne corrected him.

"Exactly." Souta continued, "Now everyone, including myself for a time, believe sunlight to be a vampire's weakness."

"Which gives vampires a sort of advantage over humans." Verne added, "As they all now believe to be safe during daytime."

"Which they're not." Eiji finally understood, "Maybe that's why he even wants to bring Vlad back!"

"How do you figure?" Mr. Voice asked.

"If he's been able to decieve people into believing one thing, he could do that again." Eiji reasoned, "With Vlad, a devoted Christian, back alive, he could make sure that people believe in the strength of Christ again."

"Which will ultimately lead humans to grow weak and more vulnerable to vampires." Verne thought out loud, "One's strength can, in this case, will be one's true weakness."

This is when Souta had a marvelous idea: "Mr. Voice, can we watch that movie?"

"Why would you wanna see the movie, Blue?" Mr. Voice replied.

"Just so we'd know what that Schrek looks like." Souta replied.

"A great idea, except..." Verne hesitated to answer.

"What?" Souta could not understand.

"Well, expressionistic movies are very well known for exaggerated use of make-up." Verne replied, "Even more than what people use in today's movies."

"Indeed." Mr. Voice replied, as he made an image of that movie's vampire appear on one of his screens, "And this here is the only image we have of Schrek."

Both Souta and Eiji looked at the picture. It showed a man, dressed into what appeared to be some kind of monk's suit. The man in question had very long fingers, the same of which applied for his nails. His head had both a very sharp nose and chin, no hair, and very pointy ears, almost bat-like.

"It is possible that this is what Schrek really looks like, but..." Verne explained.

"You don't know that for sure?" Eiji asked.

Verne merely nodded, after which Natsuki, who spoke through another one of Mr. Voice's screens, asked: "But Natsuki doesn't understand this. Why are vampires so bend on trying to take over the people? And why now?"

"We have but very little information on what vampires really are, since legends make it so difficult to separate fact from fiction." Verne started his reply, "But based on what we have found out so far, we can theorize this much."

Once he had everyone's full attention, Verne started: "The legends state that vampires are possessed beings. Possessed by some demonic force. They are right, in that they are possessed by the vampire who turned them."

"But how was that vampire turned?" Eiji wondered.

"We don't know for sure." Verne replied, "According to Bram Stoker, who too merely speculated, the first one was an expert alchemist and necromancer. Somehow, when practising those arts, he had somehow managed to turn himself into a vampire. An undead being that needs to feed on the living in order for him to stay alive, for all eternity."

"So if Natsuki were to be a vampire, Natsuki would live forever?" Natsuki asked.

"Yes." Verne replied, "Except that if you were turned by the first one, in this case Schrek, you'd live forever to be his slave."

Natsuki became silent after that, so Eiji replied: "Tough choice. Either die as a mere mortal, or live forever as a slave."

"That it is." Verne replied, "But that's not why vampires were hunted to begin with. Because there was something that mortals can do, which vampires couldn't, it made them envious, so they somehow convinced themselves that their god wants them to slay vampires."

"How can people be envious over something that someone can't do?" Souta asked.

"Because that something I'm referring to, is dying." Verne replied, flatly.

"I can see why that would envy some people." Eiji replied.

Verne continued: "Then of course, to this day, people have been hunting vampires, although only because they were lead to blindly believe it to be the right to do, but they don't exactly remember why that is."

"It's because today's media say that killing vampires is the right thing to do." Souta replied.

"Exactly." Verne answered, "Another guess of ours, is that vampires had somehow managed to survive by feeding upon each other."

This sounded quite as a surprise to everyone, causing them to drop their jaws and open their eyes widely.

Verne tried to ignore this weird reaction, as he continued: "They could feed themselves on the living for as long as they like, but if vampires would feed themselves on something that's half-dead, they could sustain their lives much longer."

"But since they're being hunted down, there's no way for them to feed themselves on each other." Mr. Voice added.

"So our friend Schrek is trying to start all over again." Verne continued, "If he were to turn the whole world into vampires, he would have nothing to worry about."

"But then he'd have the whole world under his control!" Eiji sounded angry and disgusted.

"It's the perfect religion." Verne replied, flatly, "Whether it be Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Scientology,... one problem they all have is that some of their followers would soon turn into heretics. But with Vampirisme, they are all being drained of their own thought, in every sense of the word rather than just one sense. Plus of course, the promise of eternal life is not just a faint promise with this one, as there is direct proof of it. The perfection that every religion seeks will be found in Vampirisme."

"But how can it be perfect if nobody has a free will?" Souta asked.

"I don't understand the logics behind religions either." Verne answered.

"I don't think that's the point either." Eiji reasoned, "It's obvious that Schrek is trying to turn everyone into his slaves, and thereby control the world."

"And we just gave them something that would ensure that to happen." Verne sighed, "Both willingly and unwillingly, ironically."

"I don't know about Verne-tachi..." Natsuki said, "... but... this is the first time that... Natsuki is really scared."

**THE END**

**... or not?**


End file.
